Vanessa bought a new scarf at the store when they were having a $55\%$ off sale. If the regular price of the scarf was $$13$, how much did Vanessa pay with the discount?
First, find the amount of the discount by multiplying the original price of the of the item by the discount. $$13$ $\times$ $55\%$ $=$ Percent means "out of one hundred," so $55\%$ is equivalent to $\frac{55}{100}$ which is also equal to $55 \div 100$ $55 \div 100 = 0.55$ Multiply the discount you just converted into a decimal by the original price to find the amount of money saved. $0.55$ $\times$ $$13$ $ = $ $$7.15$ Subtract the discount you just found from the original price to get the final price Vanessa paid. $$13$ $-$ $$7.15$ $ = $ $$5.85$ Vanessa paid $$5.85$ for the scarf.